Severing Ties (Book 2. Ties)

30. How Flustered She Was

                  

The elevator doors dinged open, and my mom walked inside. I looked up from my essay that would be due before midnight. "Why are you smiling?"

She smiled even brighter with my question. "Well I took the magazines and explained the sticky notes how you indicated," she reported. "Elena was the one who received me, and she was behaving like she has been the past three weeks. I don't know if it was curiosity that won her over or she really wanted to know how I was. I don't know..." She shook her head. "The point is she asked if I was having a boy or a girl. And when I told her it was a girl, she said, 'just like me.' Elena was smiling about that. We continued talking about our children and moved around other topics. We're not made up, but it's a start."

My mom was blissful, and looking at her made me feel cheery even though I had an hour and a half left to finish the essay and submit it online. "I'm glad to hear you've made an advancement in the friendship area."

"Me too. Now I am going to go find a snack and let you finish off the essay you should have started a week ago," she berated me as she walked away.

"I was busy all week," I yelled back. She was right though.

I grabbed a Twizzler and bit off a piece, then continued typing after throwing the Twizzler back in its packaging.

I turned in the essay at exactly 11:59. Midnight would have been considered late. Having accomplished that, I pushed the laptop away from my lap and laid on the couch. It felt like seconds later that I was asleep, dreaming of nonsense. 

It was finals week in school, and I was handling everything incredibly well. Except for the essay I had forgotten about; otherwise, I had been studying and retaining what I needed to know. Working with Eliana had continued like usual.

Routine always gets interrupted though. Something really out of the norm had occurred in those last few days.

Lucius had moved in with us. The Saturday after my twenty-first birthday, Lucius' things were being moved to our place. To me, it did not seem significant for him to become a permanent resident in the home made up of my mom and I. He had already implemented his personality and his habits in our environment long before all of his possessions were brought into our home. But, to have all of his belongings in my mom's room was a serious change for her. For him to permanently call our home his home too was major for her.

It was a big step in Lucius' life too. He was an actor that had constantly traveled the world. With that being said, there was no point for him to buy a house for himself when he could simply stay at his parents' house if he had a break. It was the first time in his life he lived in a home other than the house he had grown up in. Once he had a business trip and it ended, he would go back to New York and instead of going to the Lord Residence, he would be with my mother and I in our home. In fact things were changing but they weren't; the statement went hand in hand.

I awoke the next morning with the smell of something burning. I rolled off the couch and landed on the balls of my feet. Slowly I popped my bones and stretched through each vertebrate of my spine. Then I allowed my nose to lead the way towards the smell of burnt.

In my morning voice I asked, "what are you doing?" I sound like a man.

Lucius dropped the spatula he had been holding when I startled him. "What the fuck, Mackenzie!" Even in my groggy state of mind, I found it humorous to have scared him. "I was trying to cook, but...But I suck ass at cooking." His confession only made me laugh more.

Lucius grabbed the kitchen towel, balled it up, and threw it at my face. I caught it, accidentally, before it hit me. I had to finish laughing; otherwise, I would laugh all day. Once my laughter died down, I asked him what he had tried to cook.